Swimming Accesses the Five Pathways to the Brain

Close your eyes and think about a swimming pool. What do you see, hear, feel, smell or taste? These are the five paths into the brain. By stimulating the mind with all five senses you generate activity in the brain, creating growth. Swimming accesses all five senses. You can see the water, other children, a swim coach, parent, and the light reflecting in the water. You can hear the water splashing as you move your hands and feet through the water. You can feel the water as you glide through it or float on top of it. You can smell and taste the chlorine in the water. Anyone who swims gets a chance to experience these five senses.

When a child experiences an enriched environment the brain is stimulated. When a child is of the ages from birth to six months they require more stimulation than at any other time in their life. This time period offers seven developmental stages that allow a child to meet or exceed mental and physical development. This is birth, two and a half months, seven months, twelve months, eighteen months, three years and six years of age. If a child is given the opportunity to learn swimming, language or any other skill at a young age they will learn that skill faster and easier than at an older age. This is why teaching a baby to swim is so successful. As a baby develops these mobility functions, breathing will become deeper, more regular, and more mature. This enhanced respiration helps the baby to be able to make sounds, which improves communication and overall language development. When the baby can move better, and breathe better, health also improves. When the baby is able to communicate better with mother and father, baby is happier. This is a section taken from the book “How to teach your baby to swim from birth to age six “by Douglas Doman.

Glen Doman as well as Janet and Douglas Doman have published a number of books in the "Gentle Revolution Series". This line of books provides teaching programs and literature, which promote the improvement of the health and neurological development of normal children and of children who have sustained a brain injury. Through a lifetime of study in the field of child brain development, the knowledge that the brain grows through use and that knowledge is obtained fastest at a young age was discovered. Through this research we can now apply the knowledge that through stimulation that involves all five senses, such as swimming a young child can improve his or her ability to read, write, speak and move.
For more information about how swimming effects the brain, view additional articles.